Prodigy
by OrangeApple12
Summary: I let my fingers dance over the keys and I feel as if someone is watching me. I turn to see her staring at me with an intensity in her eyes that I've never seen before.
1. Chapter 1

I've always wondered how you can possibly know someone for years but never really _know_ them. Like being friends with someone for your entire life and not seeing who they are until much later or working with a colleague but not understanding them until you're forced to. How, if you spend most of your time with someone, do you not know who they are? Things have been like that with Spencer and I for years. I've worked with her for four years and yet, I still don't know her. I'm not sure if it's because she doesn't like to get personal or if we're supposed to stay strictly colleagues and nothing else.

"Ashley!" I'm startled out of my thoughts by the sound of Spencer's voice. She can be so irritating sometimes.

"Yes?"

She took one look and me and anger flooded her face. "Why aren't you dressed yet?"

I looked down at myself. I thought this outfit would suffice. Apparently not. "I, uh, I've been practicing."

"Oh. Well, okay. Could you just get dressed? You go on in an hour." With that, she turns on her heel and walks away.

Sighing, I look around my dressing room. The walls are a disgusting pink color and the floors are a beige tile. Whoever designed this room should be shot. I've seen a lot of ugly dressing rooms but this one takes the cake. I reach for my bottle of water and end up knocking it off of the dresser along with my cell phone. As I reach to pick it up, I notice I have a text message.

_Good luck tonight, hun. I know you'll do great._

I smile at the message and immediately love my best friend even more. I've known her since I was 15 and I'm 23 now and she's always been the only person in my life who never wavers. She's been right there with me through everything, from my parents dying, to coming out, she's never judged or left. And, I'll never be able to repay her for that.

I get up to get dressed. I've never really understood what to wear to these performances. All I'm doing is sitting, so why does it matter what I wear? I pick out a simple black dress, my lucky one that I've worn to countless performances. I spend the remainder of my backstage time sitting around and messing with the piano. There's never any need to practice but I do anyway.

I hear footsteps and turn my head to see Spencer, my agent and coordinator. She's great with coordinating or whatever she does, but she hardly talks to me unless it's about appearances and performances.

"Ready?" She asks.

I nod and follow her to the right side of the stage. The curtains are still closed and they'll be calling my name any minute. This is a charity performance featuring all the great icons in music. Not Chris Brown, Pink, Mariah kind of music, but Instrumental music from some of the most famous.

"_Everyone please welcome, Ashley Davies_," The announcer calls my name and the crowd claps but there is no cheering. Cheering isn't exactly considered formal at these kind of functions.

I walk over to the bench and take a seat. I place my hands on the keys, close my eyes, and let the gift I was given take over me.

**Author's Note: Let me know what you guys think. This is shorter than my normal chapters will be. :D Constructive criticism is very much appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

I open my eyes and look around to see the crowd clapping loudly with large smiles on their faces. I get up and walk off stage and as soon as the crowd can't see me I do a victory dance. A really dorky victory dance. With the cabbage patch and the sprinkler and all kinds of embarrassing stuff.

"Haha, wow, Ash."

I stop my little dance and turn around to face my best friend. A huge smile takes up my face as I run over to hug her.

"How did I do?" I ask into her shoulder.

"You did absolutely amazing."

"Thanks, Sandra. I was so nervous going out there and I was worried I would mess up."

"Have you ever, even once, messed up?" She asks with her eyebrow raised.

"Well….no."

"There you go, nothing to worry about."

I smile at her and wonder how I got so lucky to have a best friend who is always there.

"_So, what's the answer to 16? I used the Pythagorean Theorem and I still got a weird answer."_

"_What'd you get?"_

"_Six hundred and seventy nine."_

"_Yeah, that's wrong."_

_I sigh and look down at my paper. It seems like I can never get these sort of questions right. Who needs Geometry anyway? It's not like we'll use this in the real world._

"_I think I might need a tutor," I tell Jenna._

"_Who could tutor you?"_

"_You."_

"_No way, Ash. It's so impossibly hard to teach you anything. I remember when I tried to teach you to ride a bike an-"_

"_That was different," I cut her off._

"_And it took you six months of crashing into that one telephone pole on the corner and falling on your butt to get it right." _

"_Well, you weren't a good teacher."_

"_You weren't a good student."_

"_Whatever," I say in a sing-song voice and stick my tongue out at her._

_I hear Mr. Black talking in his usual loudness. He always yells for some reason. He reminds me of the Oxi-Clean guy that you see on those commercials. The, uh, the dead one._

"_Class we have a new student. This is Sandra."_

_The girl gives a little wave but I'm already too far gone to pay much attention. She is absolutely gorgeous. Dark brown hair and grey eyes and an amazing body. I have to meet this girl._

"_Can I sit here?" I turn and see the girl of my dreams standing over me with a questioning look on her face._

"_Can I, you know…..sit here?" She asks again._

"_Oh…uh…yeah! Sorry, I thought you were talking to….someone else," I mumble the last part to avoid further embarrassment. She smiles at me and then reaches into her bag. As I watch her, I make a vow to try and date her sometime during the remainder of my high school career._

Let's just say that vow was broken. It's not that I didn't think she was beautiful, it's just that she was one of those people I wanted only as a friend. Why ruin something that good?

"So, you want to go out to dinner and celebrate?"

"Sure! Let me just-"

"Ashley!" Great.

"Yes?" I say in an irritated tone as I turn to Spencer.

"I need to go over some things with you for tomorrow's performance."

"Can't we just do it tomorrow?"

She looks at me with a shocked expression. "Absolutely not! This is important."

"Yeah, well, it'll have to wait." I grab Sandra and begin walking away.

"You know, I cut you a break back when you were a nobody. The least you could do is cooperate."

I stop walking. She's right. When I was 18 I was going nowhere fast and Spencer, big time agent, cut me a break. She believed that I could make something of myself even though very few others did. No matter how tough and mean she may be, I have to remember that there was a time when she believed in me when no one else did.

"Alright."

"Alright?"

"Alright." I sigh and walk back towards her, throwing Sandra an apologetic look.

"How long will this take?"

"Just a second." I walk with her back into my dressing room and we both take a seat.

She looks into her lap for a second, composing herself, and then looks up at me.

"This isn't really about tomorrow's performance."

"Then why did you say it was?"

"Because no one can know about what I'm about to ask you until its final."

"Okay. Go on."

"How would you feel about a cross-continental European tour?"

"Very nauseous."

"Seriously, Ashley. This could be a real thing."

"Okay, okay. Well, what do you want me to say? It'd be great. But, how could we do it?"

"Michael Jay, the director of our company, would send you and I all over Europe, starting in London, ending in Munich. We would go to all the major European countries. It'd be a 3 month tour."

"When would we leave?"

"That's the thing. This is really last minute."

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Oh, absolutely not. No way."

"Ashley this could be really big for you. Just think about it, okay?"

"No, Spencer! I'm not going on a three month tour and leaving in less than 24 hours! That's not enough time!"

"What could you possibly have to do that you couldn't leave tomorrow?"

"I have a doctor's appointment."

"That's a load of crap, Ashley, and you know it."

I sigh. "Alright. I'll think about it."

"Let me know by 11 tonight." And with that, she's out the door and I'm left alone to my thoughts.

I get up and walk out of the dressing room and see Sandra, still waiting. She has an annoyed look on her face.

"What took you so long?"

"There's something I need to tell you."

**Author's Note: I hope you guys liked this. But, really, constructive criticism is extremely helpful. :D**


End file.
